Work from Home to Riches: 10 Mega-Rich Business Owners Who Did It

Start a business from home

When people think about starting a business from home, they often think about small scale businesses that won’t ever earn a lot of money. But the truth is, done right, a home-based business can grow into a mammoth company.

Don’t believe me? Here are 10 wildly successful businesses—earning in the billions—that started in someone’s home.

Amazon

In 1994, Jeff Bezos quit his Wall Street job and started an online bookstore from his parent’s garage. The internet was new and he had learned that businesses who sold things online wouldn’t have to collect sales tax in other states.

Then, in 1997 the company went public. Today, Amazon is the largest retailer in the world, earning billions in profits every year.

Google

Sergey Brin and Larry Page were in college getting their PhDs at Standard University when they hit on the idea that they wanted to create something that could find anything. They began to develop what would ultimately become Google in a friend’s garage. Ironically, the two were hesitate to pursue the business because they didn’t want to dump their PhDs to chase after just another dot come dream.

Spanx

Sarah Blakey was watching Oprah when she heard her talking about cutting off the feet of her pantyhose so she could wear them with sandals. An idea bloomed and she use her savings--$5,000—to start Spanx. While living in an apartment and working as a fax machine salesperson, she built prototypes and tested the product on friends and family.

Apple

Steve Jobs originally operated Apple, one of the world’s largest companies, out of his parent’s garage. And in addition to growing a home-based business into a billion dollar company, he started the business with a loan from his parents.

Hewlett Packard

This unstoppable duo originally rented a one car garage for $538 and used it to build their multi-billion dollar company. In fact, they were so frugal that they used a family oven to test products in the beginning stages of their business.

The company today is worth billions.

Microsoft

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen dropped out of college and begin working on programming language software. They worked in a garage that was only large enough for the two to barely fit in.

Today the company’s operating system runs about 80 percent of the entire world’s computers.

Disney

Walt Disney didn’t have a great start in life. He dropped out of school when he was only 16 to join the Army, but he was rejected because he wasn’t old enough to sign on. So he and Roy O. Disney used his uncle’s garage to build the first cartoon stand. They used cardboard boxes and lumber that was lying around. Today, of course, the company is worth billions.